A ceremony for delivering 100kg of atomized uranium-molybdenum (U-Mo) powder manufactured in Korea to the US using the technology which was developed through KAERI’s own technical capabilities was held at KAERI on January 24, 2014 with representatives from Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), US Department of Energy (DOE) and KAERI in attendance.

This ceremony is to implement an agreed action plan made at the 2012 Seoul Security Summit as the Quadrilateral Cooperation among on High-Density Low-enriched Uranium (LEU) Fuel Production. At the 2012 NSS, ROK, USA, France and Belgium issued a joint statement on agreeing to launch cooperation in developing High-Density LEU Fuel Production Technology using Centrifugal Atomization technology to minimize highly-enriched uranium (HEU) in civilian use as part of their efforts to convert research reactors from HEU fuel to LEU fuel. The US provided an amount of 110Kg of LEU for Korea to manufacture 100kg of atomized U-Mo powder last June and Korea has come to deliver it to US after its successful completion of 100kg of U-Mo powder.

The transferred powder will be sent to AREVA CERCA, France, to be manufactured into fuel assemblies and go through qualification tests at the high performance research reactors in France and Belgium to verify the fuel’s efficiency. If the result proves satisfactory, the technology will be provided to countries seeking to convert research reactors from HEU fule to LEU fuel. By doing so, Korea has played a leading role in contributing towards global efforts to minimize HEU in civilian use by completely fulfilling its national commitment made at the security summit..

Korea plans to provide, free of charge, high-density LEU-Mo ally powder using centrifugal atomization technology until the conversion of the remaining high performance reactors in Europe from HEU to LEU is to be completed to realize global nuclear security. Building on the meaningful progress made over the last two years, Korea will make an all-out effort to continue its further contribution toward achieving the ultimate goal of nuclear security by playing a leading role in developing a joint statement highlighting our contribution to promoting Multinational Cooperation on High-density LEU Fuel Development, for release at the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit to be held at The Hague, the Netherlands. [Source: Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute]